Catchfence

POINTS LEADER: With his Sept. 20 victory at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and his second-place finish Sunday at Dover (Del.) International Speedway, Mark Martin remains atop the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings with a 10-point lead over Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson.

LAW OF AVERAGES: Since the inception of the Chase, the highest average finish in the final 10 races was fifth, set by Johnson in 2007. The lowest average finish by a champion — 10.8 in 2006 — also was set by Johnson. So far, Martin’s average finish in the 2009 Chase season is 1.5.

CHASE VICTOR: Prior to this season, Martin had recorded one victory during the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Martin won at Kansas Speedway on Oct. 9, 2005. That win also was his most recent before joining Hendrick Motorsports in 2009.

MARTIN AT KANSAS: Martin has earned one victory, two top-five finishes and three top-10s in eight Cup starts at Kansas Speedway. Martin’s 13.1 average finish and 141 laps led at the track rank fourth among the 2009 Chase drivers.

MARTIN IN THE CHASE: In four previous Chase races at Kansas Speedway, Martin has earned two top-five finishes. Besides his win in 2005, he also earned a third-place finish at Kansas during the 2006 Chase.

LOOP STATISTICS: Of the 12 drivers in the Chase, Martin ranks fourth in both average running position (11.87) and driver rating (99.4). Martin has the third-highest average finish (8.5) in the last four Kansas races and has led the second-most laps (139) of any Chase driver there.

THE NO. 5 TEAM: Under the direction of crew chief Alan Gustafson, the No. 5 team has earned one top-10 finish in five Cup starts at Kansas Speedway. The No. 5 Chevy has led 93 laps at the intermediate track.

DOUBLE WINNING CHASSIS: Gustafson has chosen Chassis No. 5-527 for this Sunday’s race at Kansas. This is the same chassis Martin drove to Victory Lane at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway in May and Chicagoland Speedway in July. Martin most recently raced the car to a fifth-place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

HENDRICK AT KANSAS: Hendrick Motorsports, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, has scored three wins, nine top-five finishes, 15 top-10s and led 535 laps in eight Cup events (34 starts) at Kansas Speedway. A Hendrick driver has led at least one lap in all eight Cup events that have been held at the track.

‘TOGETHER’ TO AIR OCT. 11: “TOGETHER: The Hendrick Motorsports Story,” NASCAR Media Group’s documentary-style film chronicling the history of the eight-time Sprint Cup championship team, will air Sunday, Oct. 11 at 1:30 p.m. ET on ABC. Narrated by three-time Academy Award nominee Tom Cruise and presented by Pepsi, “TOGETHER” employs exclusive interviews, never-before-seen archival footage, thrilling racing sequences and rare family photography to detail the personal relationships and emotional events that have shaped one of NASCAR’s most decorated organizations. The official “TOGETHER” trailer is available at www.refresheverything.com/hendrick.

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MARK MARTIN, DRIVER, NO. 5 CARQUEST/KELLOGG’S CHEVROLET (ON THE CHAMPIONSHIP OUTLOOK.): “Since this Chase started, I have said that there is absolutely no way anyone can know what’s going to happen until about four races to go. That’s it. Each race accounts for only 10 percent of this whole deal. Can you win a race and think that’s it? That you could win the championship? No. And the same thing goes for having a bad finish. One bad finish isn’t going to take away a championship either. So, I think anything anyone is saying or hearing right now is pretty premature.”

MARTIN (ON SHARING INFORMATION WITH HIS TEAMMATES WHO ARE ALSO IN THE CHASE.): “Hendrick Motorsports operates on the idea of sharing information. On being four teams that work as one team. We are all in it to help each other. If I can do something that helps make Jimmie (Johnson) or Jeff (Gordon) win races and win a championship, then I will be very proud of that. I’m sure there have been times this year when their information has helped me and this team win. We all help each other. But it doesn’t mean that anyone of us isn’t working hard to win the championship for ourselves either. We are racers. Competitors. But this concept of working together is incredible, and it is really what makes Hendrick Motorsports so special.”

MARTIN (ON THE POSSIBILITY OF WINNING HIS FIRST SPRINT CUP CHAMPIONSHIP.): “I don’t lay in bed at night and dream about championships. I don’t worry myself sick with what happens each week. When we get down to four races, and if we are still in this, then, yes, I will probably think about it a little more. But I got to thinking about it last weekend and a reporter asked me about winning and I had to tell him, ‘I wanted to win this thing when I should have won it.’ Back in that day I wanted to win the championship. That’s what I thought should have been happening in my career at that point. But that’s not what I’m racing for right now. I’m racing for wins. I’m racing to be successful. And with a championship trophy or without one, that’s not what I will judge my success on.”

MARTIN (ON KANSAS SPEEDWAY.): “I’m real excited to get back to Kansas. I like intermediate racetracks, and we’ve run really well on them this year. Kansas is a lot like Chicagoland. They’re almost mirrors of each other, actually. And we had a great weekend at Chicago, so I can see where we could think that will happen again. But I don’t think that way. I’ve never run well at Loudon, and we went and won that race. So you just can’t expect things. What I do know is that this race team is working very hard right now. They keep bringing me fantastic cars to the track each weekend. I’m sure that won’t change (at Chicago).”

ALAN GUSTAFSON, CREW CHIEF, NO. 5 CARQUEST/KELLOGG’S CHEVROLET (ON HOW KANSAS COMPARES TO CHICAGOLAND.): “Those are the closest to each other of the tracks that we race. Chicago’s a little more banked, has a little more loading, but as far as the shape and the way the racetrack races they’re very similar, so we’re looking forward to getting to Kansas. It’s always a fun track to race and as good as we ran at Chicago, it always gives us a little more pep in our step. We’ll start really close to where we were at Chicago. That will give us a good baseline to work off of and give us a solid foundation to try and make our car a little better.”

GUSTAFSON (ON HIS CHASE OUTLOOK.): “It’s good so far. I’m really pleased with our finishes. We knew Loudon was going to be a struggle, and we did as good as we could possibly do there. Dover was a track we felt we could run good at, and we did even though the weekend was a struggle with trying to catch up to the tire and how the car was responding to the tire. To dig out of it and get a second-place finish was good. Anytime you give up points to your closest competition isn’t good. That’s something that concerns you, but you’ve got to look at the big picture. If we finish first and second in all 10 races we know we’ll be in good shape. So far so good. We’ve got to continue to do it, and it’s shaping up to be a really good battle. We’re looking forward to it.”

GUSTAFSON (ON THE HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS PHILOSOPHY OF SHARING INFORMATION.): “The biggest thing it says is the success of the company is first; that it’s not an individual effort. It’s not specific to a driver, it’s not specific to a team or a number or a sponsor. Any way you want to break it down, it’s specific to Hendrick Motorsports. That’s what the end goal is. That’s what everybody pulls for. That’s the focus for our company — to succeed, and the reason we do succeed is that philosophy that Mr. Hendrick passed down. We put the company first and everybody does that. You have to do it unselfishly, and sometimes it’s not the easiest thing in the world. I mean, there are times it goes a little bit against human nature. You want to be selfish, but you can’t. You can’t do it. I think we all have too much respect for Mr. Hendrick and too much respect for each other to be selfish. We just look at the success of the company first and go from there.

“If we didn’t have such an open policy and such a close relationship with our teammates, I think it would make winning not as good and make losing worse. If you beat them, you feel really good because you know that they had the same opportunities, the same tools, the same resources — everything you did. It makes you feel really good. When you lose to them you feel like you contributed to their success, which makes it a little bit easier to accept. And at the end of the day, you know if one of our cars is winning, Mr. Hendrick is happy so that always makes you happy, too.”

- Hendrick Motorsports, Press Release